Universal Business Language (UBL)

Universal Business Language (UBL) is a royalty-free set of documents based on the ebXML (Electronic Business XML) Core Components Technical Specification, also known as ISO 15000-5. UBL is overseen by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), a worldwide consortium devoted to the establishment of open IT (information technology) standards. The UBL project was originally conceived in 1999 and the first version was released in 2004.

The primary purpose of UBL is to promote and support the global use of e-commerce documents that conform to widely accepted industry criteria and government regulations, independent of local and regional infrastructure s. UBL is intended to work effectively among multiple domains and SOAs (service-oriented architectures). UBL is designed for ease of adoption and use. It is directly applicable to most existing records and archives, offering an affordable and relatively simple way for small and medium-sized businesses to enter and compete in the international e-commerce community.